I've been using Qobuz (along with my own Navidrome instance) for the past year. The depth of music in some genres seems pretty good, and seems to have all the mainstream artists, but once you get past them in indie/pop/rock genres the gaps in the catalog really start to show. I've reached out to some artists, and no one seems quite clear why their releases don't appear in Qobuz when they appear in all of the competition. Unfortunately, none of the competition makes lossless streaming available (and I'm not counting Tidal's MQA, even if it was available on Linux).

When I joined they had some social features, and searching for user created playlists seems possible. The last couple of times I've tried I've only gotten Qobuz's official playlists in search results. I've had to make do with syncing playlists from Spotify with Soundiiz.

When combined with how inaccurate the metadata is (including the lack of ability to report the inaccurate metadata) and the lack of any new features in the past year (including lack of copying pre-saves from every other platform), it really seems like investment in Qobuz has stalled.

It's too bad, because it seemed pretty promising. I really miss Rdio. :'(

For listening to Navidrome on the go I use the "substreamer" app on Android. The "Podcast Republic" app also works well for listening to college radio streams to find new artists.

Disclaimer: I was previously at Grooveshark.

> Unfortunately, none of the competition makes lossless streaming available

Deezer has FLAC streaming: https://www.deezer.com/en/offers/premium

May or may not be available in your locale. I don't actually use Deezer (I use Spotify) so I don't know how much of their catalog is available in FLAC.

Grooveshark, now that's a name I have not heard in a long time

I debated even including the disclaimer. It's been ages since it was shut down, and it's been 13 years since I was even there. However, I didn't want to violate some HN netiquette by not being transparent.

I'm glad you included it, I have fond memories using Grooveshark :)

Same here! In my youth I was a dyed-in-the-wool music snob, Grooveshark changed that forever by introducing me to a whole new universe of music

I've decided to go mostly offline. Bandcamp purchases, ripping CD's from charity shops, etc... all going into a local media server.

I use NTS radio for on the go stuff and discovering new music. I pay for their membership which is very reasonable.

Do you listen to music on your phone? If so, watch OS and app are you using?

Not very often, trying to wear headphones less generally. At the moment though that's done with Spotify and NTS radio apps. I might mirror my music library onto the phone though. I was also thinking of moving my music library onto a server and streaming it from there, not sure with which software yet.

The bandcamp app is great. You get 2-3 free streams of any album, plus an enormous catalogue of radio shows to discover new music through. It's really reinvigorated my passion for music.

Once you've listened to an album a couple of times, you have to pay for it and then you get unlimited streams.

If there's an artist that isn't on bandcamp (many artists on major labels aren't) then I use plexamp. The monthly bill for that server has effectively replaced my streaming bill.

Not OP, but I absolutely adored Airsonic-Advanced and DSub from F-Droid. Caching, streaming, quality-adjustment (FLAC on wifi, lower quality ogg on data), adding music, and scrobbling all worked amazingly well. Would very highly recommend, and I have yet to find anything better.

For me: Android with Symfonium, streaming (or locally cached) from my Jellyfin server.

I run navidrome on my Pi4 at home, and Wireguard on the Pi so my Android phone is always connected to home (I have a fixed IP but a DDNS would also work). On my phone I use subtracks: https://github.com/austinried/subtracks/releases

Same, I've went back to Bandcamp and buying CDs (used and new) and I rip them to my storage. I also upload them to my Airsonic server. I use the Substreamer Android app to then listen on the move.

I get discovery via Youtube and some friends, but it's way less than before with Spotify. I don't mind it though, as I've always tended to listen the same artists over and over again instead of new ones.

Considering that the Airsonic server also hosts bunch of other stuff for me, I think that the cost is similar to the 12$/month cost of Spotify (6$/month + buying 5 CDs per year). Also I get to own my bought music.

I listen to net radio as well, NTS, Rinse FM, Dandelion Radio give a good mix (UK based at least).

I have a Spotify subscription and it is great for the depth of the catalogue and playing your favourite music when you get the itch, but algorithmic playlists suck. Humans do discovery much better, and just leaving radio playing broadens your taste.

I’ve been using Soundcloud since I was 14 and still keep it up. It more or less has the same songs (with some exclusions here and there) and it has tons of mixes which are lovely. I love having lofi on as i code so i got a few 2 hour mixes to power me through.

SoundCloud is my main thing these days, it seems to have way more of the niche stuff I'm interested in (like game music). Thought it wasn't particularly popular, but I happily recommend it.

Would you mind sharing the lofi mixes you’re listening to? I love lofi music when concentrating on something.

Of course! I have written it all out here: https://github.com/bhurghundii/sharing-things/blob/main/lofi...

Happy listening ~

Youtube music is really good.

YouTube Music barely works, is terribly designed even by Google standards, lacks basic features any free music player had in the 90s, and they'll probably shut it down next week anyway.

Which basic features is it missing? And even if it is shut down (it is the result of the shutdown of Google Play Music, and there is no successor, so unlikely in the near future), you'll still have YouTube itself to listen music on, so no real loss there.

Seamless (gapless) playback (that actually works). Equalizer. Cross-fade. Volume normalization. Buttons that react when you click them, not 5 seconds later. Desktop app, I'll even take a shitty electron wrapper. Literally anything related to customization of the application/playback/UI/music library.

If I'm setting the bar too high, just playing audio without freezing or bugging out constantly would already be a huge improvement.

> there is no successor, so unlikely in the near future

What is Google's successor to Google+, Stadia, Reader, Wave, Buzz, Domains, blocklist feature, YouTube Streams, Inbox, Health, Answers?...

YT muisc is my favorite music streaming platform. It actually has a great algorithm for suggestions.

I used to use Tidal, thought it was pretty solid and the hi-fi streaming was an added bonus.

Same. I switched back to Spotify though because I missed the vast amount of user generated playlists you can look up on spotify. Also, Spotify caches a lot more than Tidal, so it performs better when I'm walking around connected to my spotty college wifi.

I still use it, it's fine, but with enough annoyances that leaves me thinking if the grass is greener elsewhere.

I use Tidal, mostly to support an underdog, though I'm not sure how much that reflects reality nowdays..

However, they are in the process of adding better APIs for developers to use, so at least that's a plus in my books: https://github.com/orgs/tidal-music/discussions/categories/i...

The default recommendations were pretty hip-hop-based for me, though, but nowadays it's better. I also subscribe to di.fm, which probably tells a bit about my music taste.

Wasn’t Tidal owned by Sprint? (And apparently it’s now owned by Jack Dorsey.) Isn’t that like supporting Zune for being an “underdog”, despite it being owned by Microsoft?

TIL :), though Block only acquired the majority of it at 2021, so relatively short time ago.

Well, people bought Windows Phones probably to avoid buying Android or Apple phones, so I guess it's still the same?

YouTube Premium for both YouTube Music and ad-free YouTube without caring for any adblocking hoops? I've been considering it. Their family deal shares price with Spotify Family here and it's much better value. Some people also claim that it offers better sound quality despite similar bitrates than Spotify. Besides, more automated mixes (even an offline mix), better recommendations, and plenty of music videos and good music video discovery.

What pisses me off about YT is their music and videos share the same playlists. So if you import your Spotify to ytm you get a bunch of music playlists in your yt. I wish it was separate.

Apple Music.

I gave up around that time too, initially for Tidal. These days, I've mostly gone back to buying most music I listen to. I've even bought many of the things I pirated as a teenager-I value music, so why shouldn't my spending habits reflect that? Discovery is through the came channels I used 20 years ago, plus some youtube. Record stores are great for used stuff-I picked up ten albums on CD for like $32 last month.

Plus, I run a navidrome server, so I can stream (some of, I have a lot of vinyl) my own music when I'm out. I'm a lot happier with this arrangement.